http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erteb%C3%B8lle_culture
There is some evidence conflict between Ertebølle settlements: an arrowhead in a pelvis at Skateholm, Sweden; a bone point in a throat at Vedbæk, Zealand; a bone point in the chest at Stora Biers, Sweden. More significant is evidence of cannibalism at Dyrholmen, Jutland, and Møllegabet on Ærø. There human bones were broken open to obtain the marrow. As cannibalism is not practiced to obtain food, the next most likely explanation is that the warlike Ertebølle population ritually devoured its enemies in order to ingest their powers.
Olisikohan tuosta muistumia Kalevalassa:
http://runeberg.org/kalevala/10.html
Sanoi seppo Ilmarinen: "Ohoh vanha Väinämöinen!
Joko sie minut lupasit pimeähän Pohjolahan
oman pääsi päästimeksi, itsesi lunastimeksi?
En sinä pitkänä ikänä, kuuna kullan valkeana
lähe Pohjolan tuville, Sariolan salvoksille,
miesten syöjille sijoille, urosten upottajille."
Beowulfissa esiintyvän nimityksen eotan on arveltu tarkoittavan juuttia tai jättiläistä, mutta myös kannibaalia:
http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2007 ... er-ii.html
I loved meeting Donestres, Cynocephali, and other old friends in this chapter, and also enjoyed Blurton's discussion of the problem word eoten. It's a word whose meaning is clear enough during Grendel's assault on Heorot "cannibal/anthropophage/maneater/whatever" (not Blurton's translation there, folks), but in the other five instances, for example, during the Fight at Finnsburg episode, it "seems to connote..a group of people rather than a group of giants or other monsters" (52). Blurton argues the word should be translated consistently as having to do with cannibals and cannibalism, not, for instance, as "monster." As she points out, Grendel is a threat not so much because of his size as because of his dietary habits, and also the Finnsburg fight is, like Grendel's assault on Heorot, about a metaphoric threat "of cannibalistic incorporation" and a quite literal threat to the body politic (55). In sum, she argues that "The Beowulf-poet weaves the word [eoten] through the narrative to stress [the] theme of the conceptual link between the cannibalizing of the human body and the cannibalizing of the social body" (55).
http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-notes.html
The texts read eotenas which could be either giants or Jutes (or Frisians). The genitive plural of both eoten/eoteon (giant) and Eotan (Jutes) is identical ( eotena ). [The dative plural is not: eotenum (e.g. l. 1144) means 'giants'.] This has caused various critics to interpret episodes involving the 'eotenas' in many different ways. Some read 'giants', some 'Jutes', some 'Frisians' (Bugge and others have suggested that Jutes and Frisians were the same people). The reading of 'giants' is difficult for it is hard to imagine that Germanic 'giants' could have non-antagonistic relations with any human people. It seems likely that there is perhaps intentional ambiguity here between 'giants' and 'Jutes/Frisians'. Kaske (1967) argues that the reading here is 'giants', but in a figurative sense, referring to the Frisians. Stuhmiller makes the keen observation that after the Finn Episode, no form of eoten or eotan occurs in the poem, ambiguous or otherwise. This is striking because 'giants' certainly do not disappear from the poem at this point: Grendel's mother is yet to be encountered (she is never referred to as an eotan though), the Mere-Sword is described as enta aergeweorc and giganta geweorc (both using other words for 'giant'); the dragon's chamber and treasure is also enta geweorc (although the exact meaning of these latter two is unclear - see below). The poet's song of Finn occurs immediately Beowulf has slain Grendel, the eotan who has been tormenting the Danes, as Stuhmiller observes '[ eoten ] is never used again because it fulfills its intended function in the Finn Episode; its conspicuous absence from the remainder of the poem only serves to underscore the effect....[i]t is no coincidence that the unnamed scop [poet], who might be thought of as the voice of Heorot itself, sings of the rouble caused by the Eotan, who are formidable and bloodthirsty opponents, regardless of their exact racial identity. The message is clear: the Geats may have vanquished this particular eotena , but the Danes have eradicated whole hosts of them in the past' (11). This is to say that the 'Eotans' here are literally 'giants', but figuratively cruel, untrustworthy men; the poet(s)' presumed double-entendre is difficult to render in Modern English, thus I have left the term untranslated here. See also n. 882 above and see Kaske (1967) and Stuhmiller for indepth discussion.
Vastaavia tulkintaerimielisyyksiä on ollut "Gotlannin, Finlannin ja Kaenlannin kuninkaan" Fornjotrin nimestä:
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornj%C3%B3trin_suku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornj%C3%B3t
Tosin kannibaaliksi kukaan ei ole Fornjotria haukkunut.